When the morning breeze fills the spacious room through the ventanillas he next day; Teo is awaken by its bite. From his bed he rises and leaps through the sliding windows and pulls them open. From afar he sees the rice fields; its fragrance greets him carrying with it the breeze; earthy and moist. As Teo draws in more air, another scent glides playfully through his nostrils; a familiar scent coming from the kitchen; saline, grassy and tangy; the aroma of a luscious food being prepared
"What a pleasure to wake up to an appetizing scent," Teo retorts as he draws in another air
He makes his way out of the room and passes through the main living room. The walls are adorned with huge portraits of Saints with the town's patron, St William the Hermit, occupying a boastful space in the middle. Across the hall there stands a make shift altar which contains the image of Virgin Mary holding the Holy Infant, while small figurines of some saints surround them. In between the two candelaria on both edge of the altar there sits the Holy Bible widely opened in half. The living room is neat, orderly and odorous, its wooden floor is polished Teo can even trace his own blurred reflection on it. The surface is so smooth he could also glide through his sandals on it. If he is someone not careful enough, he could end up slipping through the polished floor.
Teo then reaches the upper main hall that leads to the staircase. He descends his way out of the stone house and into the front porch. The kitchen was built from stone bricks to prevent fire; and is separated from the main house. Fire always start from kitchens and the logical way of keeping fire reaching the main house is to have it separated. Right below the brick dwelling is the kitchen, above it the servants' quarters. Teo has to sensibly hop through large stones protruding from the muddy ground leading to the detached kitchen to keep mud off his sandals and trousers.
From where he is at he hears whispers coming from the kitchen getting more audible as he gets closer. These whispers turn to chuckles which erupts to laughter, all women voices with one distinct cackle croakier than the others
"Nanang Ditas!" Teo intrudes standing from the doorway, "I could hear your laughter from miles away," he cracks impishly
" Aye! , let Don Lorenzo creep out of his grave!", Ditas retorts discharging another contagious laugh, "he used to say that my laughter always wake him up more than the roosters crow do every morning,"
Teo reclines to a wooden chair beside the head cocinera which hurries to attend to him pouring hot coffee to a cup. At the table lay suman in a bamboo stem and rice cakes puto and bibinca for breakfast. Across the hardwood table lay leafy vegetables, a squash, some green beans, coconut husks and a bucket of snails; all waiting to be attended to.
Ditas holds the jar of hulled rice and fills water in it with her left hand and wash the rice inside with it. Once the water turns starchy, Ditas strains it off the jar, then pours fresh water again in it
"Fray Luciano once said, 'man cannot live with bread alone!' Ditas' voice turns deep and pitchy imitating the friar, "I say, we indios can live with rice alone!" she yelps as the other servants laugh with her
She walks towards one servant and hands the jar and asks her towards the wood burner stove to put the jar on the right burner; while another jar sits on the left with boiling mixed vegetables in it. The head cocinera then scrapes salt with her hand from a salt bowl and sprinkles it to the boiling vegetable soup
Teo sits quietly as he sips from his coffee cup and takes a spoonful of suman
From the doorway he sees Diego, carrying dried mangrove wood walking through the wood burner stove. He unloads the firewood to the ground and stretches his back
"Good Lord! He knew I needed a hand for these," Ditas declares as she hands a coconut husk to Diego
"Your brother is not here," she interrogates.
"He complains of an upset stomach, Nanang Ditas," the boy exclaims, "he could not rise from his bed"
Ditas clouts her left hand to the wind as he hands a bolo to the boy
"Tell your mother to soak Utoy's clothes from the day before to a boiling water," Ditas pauses, "did you come along a stranger on your way home?,"
"We did," the boy reluctantly answers
"Aba!, then ask the stranger to rub his thumb with his saliva on it at Utoy's forehead or abdomen," Ditas declares, "then he will be well"
Diego blushes and silently assesses the room fixing his gaze to his segnor across the table confusingly. He recalls him as the only stranger his brother and him came across few nights before
Ditas catches the boy's sight and nods her head in disagreement;
"Just ask your mother to soak his clothes in boiling water!" she finishes
The boy cracks the husk open with a bolo as another servant readies an empty jar for the coconut's juice. Diego picks up another husk and did the same until the jar is filled with its water
Ditas picks one of the open husks up and prepares to grate the marrow with a spoon while gesturing with her lips to ask a pale servant to attend the boiling rice. She then gestures again with her lips to another maid to begin slicing the squash into cubes.
"The Palm tree in itself is a marvel" Ditas ponders as she continues grating the coconut marrow, "from its bark we were able to build our houses; with its leaves, the roof," she pauses, "but the real wonder is its fruit,"
Ditas gestures to the older maid to hand her a large bowl. In it she exacts the shredded marrow with cloth to cause coconut milk to flow freely into the bowl. While she continues to exact the shredded marrow, Ditas nods at the pale servant to communicate that the vegetable mix is cooked;
"Put it aside, hija"
She watches as the pale maid carefully lifts the jar and sets it aside. The head cocinera then proceeds with her claim;
"From the outer green husks we can create ropes from its fibers; from the marrow we get its milk which then can be turned to wine once fermented. The desiccated marrow can then be used to make our oil,"
She lifts her sight away from the bowl into her audience as she gathers their agreements from their collective nods. She then waves her right hand and gestures again for the older maid to hand her the jar of washed snails. Once she possesses the jar, Ditas inspects the snails inside it and pours the coconut milk in it
"We call these laghan," Ditas calmly declares as she finishes pouring in the coconut milk, "my father and his brothers used to kill whales for it" she pauses as she adds salt to the mix
"They killed whales for snails?" Teo asks, stunned
Ditas nods in approval as she adds herbs to the snail jar
"You see segnor, whales swallow these poor snails alive," Ditas claims while holding one snail closer to her inspecting eyes, "once inside, they would crawl out of their shells and devour the whales' heart. Later when the whales are killed, these little monsters can be found still alive near the dead whale's heart," she finishes as she places the jar on the left burner
As she turns around to face her audience, she sees her segnor puzzled and she chuckles at this scene as she slowly reaches for the cloth hanging on her shoulder to dry her hands;
"The colonizers had the same reaction when my father told them what they just ate one evening. I was so little then but I still remember their disgust and their terror," she says in mid laughter, "but they later admitted the snails tasted good nonetheless!" she concludes
"My father was a celebrated deep sea diver for the rarest breed of fish are found in the abysses. He taught me to traverse the wild seas at a young age in rafts. I used to trade my garbs for trouser in the morning to come with him to fish; but in the evening, I had to put my tricks back on to pick vegetables and cook them for me, my father and my three uncles. You see, men could drain the seas off fish but they could not keep their own house tidy," the old servant releases another cackle
"One stormy evening, my father encountered a misfortune as he was making his way back to the shore. A tidal wave upsurge subdued his raft and he stumbled through the ocean, his head hit the corals and his back slamming on the rocks causing him to be invalid for the succeeding weeks. As my father could no longer provide for us, I ended up working as a lavandera in the monastery. Fortunately, my thorough service earned the approval of Fray Matias, the head priest at the time. I was then referred as a criada to the stone house, a personal maid to Donya Alejandra; Don Lorenzo's mother. The Captain used to claim that he grew up listening to these stories" Ditas concludes
"But they squandered whales for small snails!" Teo exclaims from across the table
The head cocinera who just shrugs her shoulders with a huge smile gestures to the pale maid;
"The rice is cooked, Jimenal"
The pale maid steps in front of the wood burner stove, with a pair of rugs on each of her hands, lifts the rice jar and sets it beside the vegetable soup. Ditas then hands the snail jar soaked in coconut milk to Jimena, who quickly rests the jar on the stove. She bends her back to pick up dried mangroves chop and reloads the wood burner stove with them.
"But that's just the way it is, Segnor" Ditas continues with a smile, "a huge sacrifice has to be done for the sake of the smaller few"
She then lifts the lid off the vegetable soup and with a spoon she takes a sip of its broth. From the look on her face she seems satisfied with the taste;
"The death of the whales make way for a very sumptuous meal. What makes the laghan tastier than other snails is the fact that it endured the terror of being devoured by a whale which size is a hundred of times bigger than them," Ditas continues; "when one eats these snails, it is as if they are privileged enough knowing what these poor creatures had gone through and they feel like being part of its triumph against the huge whale"
Teo just finished his coffee but still gripping the cup tightly; his face is still in disagreement with Ditas;
"But a whole whale was wasted for these small snails. Imagine the meat that can be had out of it" he claims stubbornly
That's when Ditas releases a loud cackle as she turns towards his segnor;
"What? You thought we did nothing with the whale after we got the snails?" she pauses, "everybody also want some whale meat, Segnor"
Then the snail jar starts to boil, its lid is pushed over by an overflowing froth.